Heartlight Peace Ministries

12/25/2025

Our “Oneness in Nature Circles-KC” had a wonderful time celebrating the Winter Solstice with the The Resilient Activist sponsored event. We are so grateful to connect with so many folks who love nature.

12/22/2025

12/21/2025

Happy Winter Solstice! (9:03 am CST)

Today is Yule. It is celebrated on the Winter Solstice which is the longest night of the year, but after this night the nights will start to get shorter and days longer. It is a celebration of the rebirth of the Sun.

Ancient people were hunters and farmers and spent most of their time outdoors. The seasons and weather played a very important part in their lives. Because of this many ancient people had a great reverence for and worshiped the Sun. The Norsemen saw the sun as a wheel that changed the seasons. It was from the word for wheel we get the word Yule, houl or Jol.

Every 6 months there is a Solstice. On the Summer Solstice the longest day of the year and shortest night, the Waning Sun takes control of the skies and the days get shorter and nights get longer, the cold starts to set in and vegetation on the earth begins to die. On the Winter Solstice (Yule) the Waxing Sun takes over and the nights start to get shorter and the days longer, it is a sign that Spring is only a few months away where life will begin anew and the earth will start to blossom and bloom.

On Yule we celebrate the return of the Waxing Sun. In Wicca it is birth of the Sun God who has many names, Cernunnos, Pan, The Oak King, Apollo, Sol, Freyr, Horus, Mithras, The Horned God, The Green Man, Lord Of Light and more. The Goddess gives birth to him on this night, by doing this she sacrifices herself to give life to the Lord Of Light to ensure the earths survival.

In ancient tradition Yule was celebrated with a large fire where townsfolk and villagers would dedicate it to the Sun God. They would fill their home with evergreens and an evergreen tree to show that even though the land is barren and dead, life is still flourishing, They would decorate the tree and their home with shiny objects to encourage The Sun God to shine.

We use holly and mistletoe on Yule as the plants flourish in the Winter, we use them as symbols of the fertility of the God and Goddess. The red berries of the holly represent the blood of the Goddess and the white berries of mistletoe represent the semen of the God to ensure a healthy Spring and harvest to come.

Fill your Yule altar with fruit, nuts and winter seasonal fare such as fallen leaves, fallen tree branches, acorns, evergreens and also anything bright and shining. Light yellow, green, red, white or orange candles to ensure a good year and honour the season. make an offering of wine, grapes, juniper berries, apples, nutmeg, cinnamon or cloves to the Gods to honour them and make a wish for a happy New Year.

The Winter Solstice has been celebrated by many ancient cultures one of the most famous being Saturnalia. The ancient Romans held a festival to celebrate the rebirth of the year. Saturnalia ran for seven days from the 17th - 23rd of December. It was a time when the ordinary rules were turned upside down. Men dressed as women and masters dressed as servants, the servants were given lavish gifts and their masters made them a big feast. The festival also involved decorating houses with greenery, lighting candles, holding processions and giving presents. A Saturnalia Tree would be the centre piece of every home.

Yule is a celebration of light and of the Sun and it's life giving properties upon the earth. It is a time to rejoice and to be thankful for all we have and to gather strength for the New Year. It is a time to contemplate on the year that has gone and look to the future.

The Winter Solstice falls on the longest night of the year (this can fall from between (20th - 23rd December) and was celebrated in Britain over 10,000 years before the arrival of Christianity. The Druids (Celtic priests) would cut the mistletoe that grew on the oak tree and give it as a blessing. Oaks were seen as sacred and the winter fruit of the mistletoe was a symbol of life in the dark winter months. The Pagan celebration of Winter Solstice (also known as Yule) is one of the oldest winter celebrations in the world.

It was also the Druids who began the tradition of the yule log. The Celts thought that the sun stood still for twelve days in the middle of winter and during this time a log was lit to conquer the darkness, banish evil spirits and bring luck for the coming year. To make a Yule log, cut a log into 12 pieces (each piece represents the 12 months of the year to come) and burn a piece every day for 12 days, with each piece burned make a wish for the coming new year. This is where we get the term 12 days of Christmas.

Many of the Yule customs are still followed today by Pagan and non-Pagans. They have been incorporated into the Christian and secular celebrations of Christmas.

Today we welcome back the Lord of Light. Blessed Yule to all.

12/18/2025

We are not having a formal “Oneness in Nature Circles- KC” for December, but we would invite you to join us at this Winter Solstice event sponsored by the Resilient Activist. It is a free event, but you do need to register in advance. Please click on the link in their post below. Annika and her husband Hugh will be attending.

Join us this Sunday for a meaningful Winter Solstice Communibration on Dec. 21, 1-4 PM CST. Flow includes: 1-2 PM guided winter trail walk, 2 PM meditation with Amy Schonhoff, 2:15-3 PM Yule log creation and blessing, 3-4 PM fireside warmth with stories, s’mores, and cider. At Swope Park's Camp Lake of the Woods—bring sturdy shoes, optional intentions, or evergreens. Accessibility: Natural trails may be uneven; fireside space available.

Come as you are! Sign up: https://events.humanitix.com/winter-solstice-communibration

12/13/2025

This morning, I took a long walk through the backyard. The cold temperatures and recent snowfalls have now transformed summer’s lush gardens into stark and barren worlds. The ground was hard and unforgiving; the landscape stripped down to little more than branches and memories, sparing only the

12/05/2025

Happy Full Moon, the last one for 2025!

Embrace the Cold Moon’s quiet magic ❄️

December invites us to slow down and release what no longer feels supportive. A time for rest, reflection, inner nourishment, and setting gentle intentions for the year ahead 🌙✨

Discover how intention-setting can transform your daily life: www.centreofexcellence.com/how-to-set-intentions/

12/04/2025

Good read on the seasonal cycles.

This question comes up every year, and it’s a good one—because the answer reveals just how differently humans have marked time across history.

In our modern North American calendar, the solstices and equinoxes are taught as the first days of the seasons. December 21st becomes “the first day of winter,” March 21st “the first day of spring,” and so on. Most of us grew up with this as if it were universal and ancient.

It isn’t.

For most of human history—across Celtic lands, Nordic regions, Old English reckoning, and many parts of continental Europe—the solstices and equinoxes were understood not as beginnings, but as climactic turning points at the center of each season. They were the hinge, not the doorway.
In this older view:

Winter began around Samhain (early November).

Midwinter was the winter solstice.

Spring began in early February (Imbolc).

Summer began in early May (Beltane).

Autumn began in early August (Lughnasadh).

This old agricultural-calendar rhythm makes intuitive sense if you imagine life before central heating or imported food. Winter began with the first killing frosts, the dying of the old year, and the need to rely on stored food. By the time the solstice arrived, people were already deep into cold, scarcity, early sunsets, and long nights.

So the solstice—the longest night—was experienced as the midpoint, the bottom of the arc, the moment when the sun “turns” and begins its slow return. Even today, countries like the UK still refer to Christmas and the solstice season as Midwinter.

There’s also a practical truth:
Our weather doesn’t neatly follow astronomical markers.
The atmosphere has a lag. Just as the hottest days of summer arrive after the summer solstice, the deepest cold of winter often arrives after the winter solstice. This lag is why early cultures tracked seasons by natural signs, not by the solar calendar alone.

And of course, in places like the northeastern United States, a 60-degree day in early December doesn’t change the underlying truth: the light is waning, the nights are longest, the energy of the land is fully withdrawn. Season is about sunlight, not temperature.

So if the solstice feels like Midwinter to you—if you sense that deep hush, that “pause in the heartbeat of the world”—you’re standing in a tradition far older than our modern calendar.

In this older understanding, the Solstice is not the beginning of winter but its holy center, the still point, the turning, the promise hidden inside the dark. The earth may not feel cold yet where you live, but the light cycle tells a truer story.

Living by the seasons means learning to listen to the oldest calendar of all:
the land beneath your feet and the slow breath of the sun.

11/27/2025

A beautiful song for Thanksgiving! 🕯️💓

David Roth performed his contemporary & original folk music on April 13, 2014 at the First Presbyterian Church in Roseburg, OR. Roth has been playing his ins...

11/27/2025

Happy Thanksgiving! So grateful for all of Life and being able to share my spiritual gifts with all of you.

Thanksgiving means honouring the life around us: honouring the quiet things that often go unnoticed in our rush to move through life.

It means honouring the people who came before us - the ones whose struggles and stories make our own stories possible. It means honouring the friends and family who are part of those stories. Those who sit with us, who laugh with us, who hold our hearts in theirs. It means remembering those who no longer walk beside us but who still hold a part of our heart nonetheless.

Thanksgiving means honouring the land we walk on: the earth beneath our feet, the trees stretching skyward, the rivers flowing like ribbons, weaving their way through our world.

It means honouring each moment, each memory; the small everyday things that hold meaning: a warm meal, a gentle word, a hand held without thinking.
Thanksgiving means pausing. Noticing. Sharing.
Honouring our past, our people, this place.
Giving thanks,
for the simple act of being here
together.

*****

A follower in the US asked me if I could write something that they could read out around the dinner table this Thanksgiving day. Wishing everyone that celebrates a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Becky Hemsley 2025
Artwork from Canva

11/26/2025

As many of us in America gather to give thanks tomorrow for our many blessings, please remember in your 🙏🏻 🙏🏻 the first inhabitants of our land. We are still honoring National Native American Heritage Month, so in the first comment is the real truth of what it was like for Native tribes back in the days of what is considered the first Thanksgiving. This info is not easy to hear, but it is in our awareness we can plant seeds for healing.

11/24/2025

I am so grateful for our participants that turned out for our November Meeting of the "Oneness in Nature Circles - KC". It is hard to put into words all that happened here. I know each person was moved and transformed by the experience. Seeds of healing were definitely planted. There is more work to be done to support Indigenous people in our area. We raised $50 to go to the KC Indian Center.
(Photo of two of the participants as they pause to remember and inwardly offer healing (through a forgiveness prayer) to the 28 Native American Nations (tribute markers to each Nation are located here) to each tribe that passed through this area as far back as the 1600s.

11/19/2025

Our focus this month…

This month, we honor the stories, traditions, and enduring strength of Native and Indigenous peoples — whose voices continue to rise with courage and grace. 🤎

Dr. Maya Angelou once wrote in a poem titled ‘Equality’:
“You declare you see me dimly
through a glass which will not shine,
though I stand before you boldly,
trim in rank and marking time.”

Her words remind us that equality begins with seeing one another clearly — not through distortion or stereotype, but through truth, respect, and shared humanity.

As we reflect on Native American Heritage Month, may we confront painful histories, amplify Indigenous voices, and commit to a more just and inclusive future. ✨